HSUS Investigation Exposes One of the Industry's Cruelest Egg Factory Farms

©2006	HSUS

Michael Foods is a major egg supplier that serves some of the biggest names in the food business. The food industry heavyweight also carries the dubious distinction of confining millions of egg-laying hens in some of the worst conditions in the egg industry—an industry notorious for its disregard for animal welfare.

This past winter, an employee at a Michael Foods egg factory farm in Wakefield, Neb., documented the welfare of the hens. The employee's primary job was simple: remove dead birds. The employee pulled hundreds of corpses out of cages for eight hours every day.

Cruelty on Camera

The employee also carried a hidden video camera. The shocking footage shows abusive conditions such as:

• Live hens confined in cages with dead birds
• Hens caught in cage wires, unable to escape
• Sick and injured hens
• Hens dying from dehydration and starvation, just inches away from food and water

Michael Foods supplies some of the largest food companies in the nation, including Pillsbury, Hellmann's, Mrs. Smith's, Hostess, and Kraft. Yet it does not even participate in the bare minimum voluntary egg industry program on animal husbandry. More than 80 percent of the industry follows those guidelines—which permit routine abuse, but are better than no guidelines at all. Accordingly, Michael Foods ranks as a distinctly inferior egg producer when it comes to animal welfare.

Ignoring the Guidelines, Missing the Trend

The United Egg Producers' Scientific Advisory Committee (a group that still supports confining hens in battery cages) issued a statement in January 2006 which emphatically criticized egg producers failing to meet even the UEP's guidelines: "Simply stated—failure to adhere to these minimum guidelines is not consistent with humane treatment of laying hens."

Yet while the above food companies currently purchase eggs from one of the most abusive egg producers in the industry, there's a nationwide trend toward better egg production for grocery chains, food service providers, corporations and schools.

Time to Change or Switch

"No socially responsible company should be associated with battery cage egg production, let alone with a company that doesn't even meet the paltry industry guidelines on animal husbandry," noted Paul Shapiro, director of HSUS's Factory Farming Campaign. "Clients of Michael Foods should either demand that the company move to cage-free egg production or switch to a supplier which takes animal welfare more seriously."

You Can Help

By following the Three Rs, you can help reduce animal suffering every time you sit down to eat. Learn more.

See the Video

Profiting on Pain

Battery-Cage Eggs

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